The Aeneid
It is a movie based on Virgil's Latin epic poem, the Aeneid. The movie has two parts: Journey to Italy and War in Italy. Both are aired as one movie. Section heading Plot: Aeneas and his fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean went on a journey to Italy.Juno held resentment because she wasn't chosen for the Judgment of Paris and her favorite city Carthage,will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. Ganymede, a Trojan prince,was chosen by Jupiter to be his new cup-bearer,replacing Juno's daughter Hebe.Juno went to Aeolus and asked him to make a storm that devastates Aeneas' fleet in exchange for Deiopea,the loveliest of all the sea nymphs,as his wife.Aeolus refused the bribe but follows her command.The storm devastated the fleet.Although Neptune is no friend with the Trojans,he secured the seas to make sure that Aeolus would not do it again.The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa.His mother,Venus,encourages him and tells him the history of Carthage.Then,Aeneas ventures in Carthage,and the temple of Juno,seeks and gains the favor of Dido,the queen of the Carthage.At the banquet in honour of the Trojans,Aeneas tells the events which occasioned the Trojans' fortuitous arrival.Then,he begins the tale in the Trojan War.Flashbacks of the Trojan War started appearing.Meanwhile,Venus told her son's half-brother Cupid to imitate Ascanius,his son.Disguised,Cupid goes to Dido and offers the gifts expected from a guest.Dido's heart was pierced and she falls in love with the boy and his father.But,in the banquet,Dido realizes she has madly fallen in love with Aeneas.Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make a deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting him from his destiny of founding a city in Italy.Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a cave in which Aeneas and Dido.There,they told their feelings to each other,an event that Dido manages to indicate a marriage between them.But when Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, he has no choice but to part.After Dido knew this,she commited suicide and kills herself by stabbing a knife on her heart. Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees the smoke of Dido's funeral pyre and knows its meaning only too clearly. However, destiny calls and the Trojan fleet sails on to Italy. In Sicily,Aeneas and his men are on the funeral games that Aeneas organizes for the anniversary,of the death of Anchises,his father,who died in the Trojan War.Aeneas and his men have left Carthage for Sicily where, one year after the death of his father, Aeneas organizes a nine-day anniversary which includes celebratory games – a boat race, a foot race, a boxing match, and a shooting contest. In all those contests, Aeneas is careful to reward winners and losers, showing his leadership qualities by not allowing for antagonism even after foul play.Afterward, Ascanius leads a military parade and demonstration, prefiguring Rome's future predilection for war. During these events (in which only men participate), Juno incites the womenfolk to burn the fleet and prevent them from ever reaching Italy, but her plan is thwarted when Ascanius and then Aeneas intervene. Aeneas prays to Jupiter to quench the fires, which the god does with a torrential rainstorm. An anxious Aeneas is comforted by a vision of his father, who tells him to go down to the underworld to receive a vision of his and Rome's future, which he will do afterwards.In return for safe passage to Italy, the gods, by order of Jupiter, will receive one of Aeneas' men as a sacrifice: Palinurus, who steers Aeneas' ship by night, falls overboard.The next day,Aeneas,with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl, descends into the underworld through an opening at Cumae; there he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome. Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads the Trojans to settle in the land of Latium, where he courts Lavinia, the daughter of king Latinus. Although Aeneas would have wished to avoid it, war eventually breaks out. Juno is heavily involved in causing this war—she convinces the Queen of Latium to demand that Lavinia be married to Turnus, the king of a local people, the Rutuli. Juno continues to stir up trouble, even summoning the Fury Alecto to ensure that a war takes place. Seeing the masses of Italians that Turnus has brought against him, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of Turnus. He meets King Evander from Arcadia, whose son Pallas agrees to lead troops against the other Italians. Meanwhile, the Trojan camp is being attacked, and a midnight raid leads to the deaths of Nisus and his companion Euryalus, in one of the most emotional passages in the book. The gates, however, are defended until Aeneas returns with his Tuscan and Arcadian reinforcements. In the battling that follows, many heroes are killed—notably Pallas, who is killed by Turnus, and Mezentius, Turnus' close associate. The latter, who has inadvertently allowed his son to be killed while he himself fled, reproaches himself and faces Aeneas in single combat—an honourable but essentially futile pursuit. Another notable hero, Camilla, a sort of Amazon character, fights bravely but is eventually killed. She has been a virgin devoted to Diana and to her nation; the man who kills her is struck dead by Diana's sentinel Opis after doing so, even though he tries to escape. After this, single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas is so obviously superior that the Italians, urged on by Turnus's divine sister, Juturna, break the truce. Aeneas is injured, but returns to the battle shortly afterwards. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium (causing the queen of Latium to hang herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In a dramatic scene, Turnus's strength deserts him as he tries to hurl a rock, and he is struck by Aeneas' spear in the leg. As Turnus is begging on his knees for his life, the poem ends with Aeneas killing him in rage when he sees that Turnus is wearing the belt of his friend Pallas as a trophy. Section heading Cast Frankie Fitzgerald as Aeneas,the main protagonist. Liam Neeson as Jupiter,the chief god of Roman Mythology. Rose Byrne as Juno,queen of Heaven,goddess of light,birth,women,and marriage and wife of Jupiter in Roman Mythology. Miles Anderson as Neptune,the god of seas in Roman Mythology. Anne Hathaway,as Deiopea,the loveliest of the Nereids(sea nymphs). Saffron Burrows as Venus,goddess of love and beauty in Roman Mythology. Orlando Bloom as Cupid,god of love in Roman Mythology. Freddy Douglas as Mercury,god of commerce,eloquence,travel,and theft who serves as herald and messenger of the gods in Roman Mythology. Sam Worthington as Ascanius,Aeneas' son. Ralph Fiennes as Palinurus,helsman of Aeneas' ship. Nathalie Cox as Cumaean Sibyl,the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. Polly Walker as Lavinia,daughter of king Latinus. Quotes: Aeneas: I,Aeneas,was on a journey to Italy with my fellow Category:Greek Mythological stories Category:Greek Mythological stories